SEO Elite Software Review Strategies

Posted by Michael Fleischner on May 24th, 2009 | one comment

Most people think of SEO as something that happens after a website has been built. Nothing could be further from the truth. Effective search engine optimization begins even before a website is built. This will save you time and money over the long term, helping you to improve rankings and can be automated with the help of SEO Elite software review.

Ideally, you want your website to be designed properly in order to allow search engines to easily crawl your content. This can be done easily by applying some simple SEO Elite Software related techniques before your web site code is complete.

One of the most essential aspects of website design is choosing a format that is search engine friendly. This means that the site is using html, a common programming language for the web. Simple code allows for easy access to your content and supports other on page optimization factors that can improve your rankings.

Every website should start with a basic navigation and special attention to key coding elements. The most important of these elements is your meta tags. The meta tags are found, if used properly, at the very top of your web page code. SEO Elite software review ensures that your web site pages include are your title, keywords, and descriptions tags. The meta tags tell search engine spiders what your site is about and allows for certain checks and balances to take place.

On you page, highlight the content you want search engines to see with large, bold tags. Whether you are using H1 tags or simply placing your titles in big, bold language, you want emphasis. Search engines take notice. Be careful though because you want your site to be aesthetically appealing and not chase browsers away.

In addition to applying simply, yet effective on page optimization techniques, you must consider long-range SEO strategies. Using SEO Elite software review, you can determine which aspects of your site are ready for prime time and which need to be further developed before working on off page optimization techniques.

In particular, consider adding pages that you can add to over time that support link building and accessibility for search engine spiders. Be sure to include:

Include a site map that includes a comprehensive listing of all web site pages. There are a number of tools, such as SEO Elite software that can create a site map for you. Alternatively, Google offers a site map upload tool that can help you succeed in the area of site map development.

One of the best ways to attract links to your website is with the help of link partners. Reciprocal link partners are established when you offer real estate on your web page in exchange for a link on their web site or blog. There is some debate as to the effectiveness of link exchanges but I feel they are valuable when you are first starting out with a new web site.

Submission pages that encourage new content. One of the most powerful seo techniques is the addition of new content. Make it easy for your users to add or submit content to your website. When search engines see new content, they rejoice. Don’t underestimate how important it is to make it simple for your browsers to add or submit content.

When focusing on search engine optimization, especially with a new website, follow the basic ideas outlined above. There are a number of other factors to consider as well. However, you should always start with a strong foundation – a site design that meets basic SEO standards but one that also supports your long range search engine optimization goals.

Optimizing Your Web Site for the Search Engines

Posted by admin on May 20th, 2009 | no comments

By Mitchell Harper

Introduction

One of the best and most obvious ways to gain new web design clients is by ranking better in the search engines. If you can’t afford to hire a professional search engine optimization (SEO) company then read this article all the way through because I’m about to teach you a few strategies that we’ve personally used to get Interspire.com ranked on the front page of Google for a lot of competitive search terms.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization (or SEO as it’s affectionately called) is the ongoing process of tweaking and modifying your website in an effort to rank competitively in the search engines for one of more keyowords that people will use to search for your business.

As a web designer I’m sure you’d agree that if more people were able to find your site in the search engines then you could dramatically increase the number of clients you have, right? Well it’s the same for most businesses, and a good SEO plan is where you should start.

The “One Hour a Day, 30 Day” SEO Plan

Search engine optimization is part science, part art and part luck. The good news is that we can use a proven scientific approach to help your website rank better in the search engines, but you first have to decide which keyword(s) you want your site to rank for.

If you’re a web designer in Los Angeles, then here are a few examples of keywords you absolutely would want to be on the front page of the search engines for:

• Los Angeles Web Designer
• Web Designer California
• Web Design Company Los Angeles
• etc…

To determine which keywords you want to rank for just ask yourself: “If I were one of my potential customers, which words would I use to find my company?”. You should be able to come up with at least a handful of keywords.

If you can dedicate just one hour a day (for 30 days) to the search engine optimization plan I’m about to show you then there’s a great chance that you’ll be able to significantly improve how your web site ranks in the search engines for the keywords people are using to find you.

#1: Getting Links Back to Your Website

This is hands down the most important search engine optimization strategy you can spend your time on. When another website links back to yours, Google sees this as a positive vote for your website, and as such will take this into account when determining which sites should be at the top of the pile.

The more sites you have that link back to you, the higher your site will appear in the search results, however there is one main factor to consider with this strategy, and that’s the credibility of the sites linking back to yours.

Google’s PageRank algorithm is a measure of the popularity of a website. If you download the Google toolbar you can see the PageRank of any site you visit. It’s just a measure between 0 and 10 – 0 means the site is new and has no popularity and a PageRank of 10 means the site is one of the most trusted and popular sites on the Internet.

Interspire.com for example has a PageRank of 7. Yahoo.com has a PageRank of 10.CNN.com has a PageRank of 9, Business.com has a PageRank of 7, etc.

When looking for sites to link back to yours, the higher the PageRank the more “points” Google will award you for having that site linking to you, thus pushing you higher up in the search results for your keywords.

The quickest and cheapest way to get sites linking back to your site is to send them an email and just ask for it, but what type of sites should you request links from? In general they should be similar in topic to your site, so as a web designer you might request links back from sites that talk about web design, marketing, attracting new leads and customers, etc.

A link acquisition strategy over the medium/long term is to get serious about publishing high quality articles on your web site that others will link back to. We’ve been using this strategy for years and we’ve written dozens of articles that are linked to from all over the Internet. Because we don’t have to actively solicit these links, it makes it much easier to get links using quality articles.

So what should you write about and how often should you write? One article a week is a great start. Aim for 500-1,000 words and write about what you know: how to choose a web designer, why it’s important to have a usable website, how to create a web page in Dreamweaver, etc. These are topics your potential customers will expect you to know about and after reading your articles they will come to respect you as an authority on web design.

#2: On-Page Search Engine Optimization

On-page keyword optimization involves making changes to existing pages on your website so they include the keywords you want to rank in the search engines for. On-page optimization includes a number of different “sub strategies”, which are:

• Keyword density: How often do the keywords you want to rank for appear on your page? This is measured as a percentage, such as 5.8%. So let’s say you want to rank on Google for “red sports cars”. On most pages of your site you’ll want to include the text “red sports cars” and also variations of this phrase, such as “red cars that are sporty”, “sports cars that are red”, “sports cars”, etc.

  There’s no hard and fast rule, but you generally want a keyword density of about 7-12% for the keywords you want to rank for. That means that if you have 100 words on your page, 7-12 of them should be “red”, “sports” or “car”. You can check your keyword density at www.ranks.nl.
  

• Header tags: You absolutely MUST include the keywords you want to rank for in a <h1>…</h1> tag on your site. H1 tags tell the search engines that the text between them is important, and you should aim for just one <h1> tag on each page as close to the top as you can. In our example you might use <h1>Red Sports Cars</h1> on one page and <h1>Luxury Red Sports Cars</h1> on another page.
  
• Page title: This is the most important on-page thing you can optimize. Your page title is the text that’s used to form the link back to your site from the search engines, so it needs to include the keywords you want to rank for, and usually in variations, such as <title>Red sports cars, luxury sports cars, racing sports cars , red sports cars</title>
  
• Internal linking structure: You want to use the keywords you want to rank for to link between pages on your site. For example, on your home page you might link to a category page using the text “sports cars” and on that category page you would link back to your home page with the text “red sports car”. This is an internal two-way link, and although internal links don’t hold nearly as much weight as external ones, you should link to different pages on your site using a few different combinations of your keywords.
  
• Keywords at the very top of the page: You should always include your main keywords as close to the top of the page as you can, because Google will look at the text on your site from top-to-bottom and will treat the text closer to the top of the page with a higher importance.

Conclusion

There’s a lot more to search engine optimization than I’ve talked about here, however what I’ve mentioned above is a good place to start if you can’t afford to hire an SEO company or want to get started learning about SEO so that you can eventually offer it to your clients as an additional paid service.

Google SEO Basics for Beginners

Posted by admin on May 19th, 2009 | no comments

By Eddie Machaalani

As many of us web developers already know, Google is rated by many as the number one search engine in the world. We personally know that our websites get about 90% of their search engine traffic direct from Google searches.

Getting indexed by Google can be a pain, but getting highly placed rankings for specific keywords seems to be the nut that not many web developers without SEO (search engine optimization) experience or seo training can crack.

Today we’re going to give you an informative primer on the basics of search engine optimization techniques — many of which we use everyday to optimize our websites and stay ahead of our competitors.

We personally believe in the “practice what you preach” approach to all things business related — especially SEO. So, before we continue, here’s a sample of keywords and Google rankings for some of our websites:

Step 1. Choosing The Right Keywords

Choosing the right keywords to base your site optimization around is an important first step. General or generic keywords are usually not the best approach, and sometimes it’s better to be a little more specific and focus on niche keywords relating to your product or service.

For example, let’s talk about www.devedit.com — DevEdit is our WYSIWYG HTML editing component that drops into browser-based applications.

The problem is, there are a LOT of WYSIWYG HTML editors, but how can we get DevEdit to appear in Google’s top 10 rankings? Well, let’s see. Trying to optimize for the keyword “HTML” alone would be a tough task, as it’s too general. There are HTML editors, HTML tutorials, HTML articles, etc.

We need to be more specific, which means:

1. Targeting a more suitable market that is looking for a content editing solution
2. Competing with fewer websites targeting the same keywords
3. Optimizing for keywords that people actually use when performing searches

Targeting a suitable market will depend on your website, as well as the products and services you offer. Try to be specific with your keywords, and remember that people no longer use single keyword search phrases – the average search phrase contains 3-5 related words.

For example, if you’re optimizing for a web development site and you’re located in Sydney, Australia, use keywords such as “web development Sydney” or “web development services Australia”.

To find out how many websites are competing with your keywords — either intentionally or not — simply do a search on Google and note down how many results are returned. In our case, for “online html editor”, we’re competing with 9,080,000 sites. The more sites that are competing for your keywords, the harder it will be to get on the front page.

Alternatively, to get a rough indication of how many people are actually searching for the keywords you want to optimize your site for, use the Overture search suggestion tool. It’s not exact, and doesn’t measure Google searches, but it does give a very good estimate.

The Overture search suggestion tool will also provide you with a list of similar keywords, based on the keywords you enter. This can be a great way to find other keywords to optimize your site for.

As a rough guideline, try to optimize every page on your site for a different search phrase. Each search phrase should contain 2 to 3 highly targeted keywords.

Step 2. Your URL and Title Tag

Two of the most determining factors in Google’s ranking are your domain name and title tag. For example, a domain name such as:
http://www.web-development-sydney.com will generally get ranked higher than http://www.companyname.com, assuming that they had identical keywords and page content.

For some of us, keywords in the domain name look too unprofessional, and we’ve already registered our domain, so it’s too late to change. An alternative — and also a useful tactic — is to add your keywords into the names of your pages, such as

http://www.companyname.com/web-development-services.html

Your title tag is equally as important as your domain name. Using keywords in your title tag can improve your Google ranking significantly. Trying to achieve a balance of professionalism with keyword density in the title tag however is sometimes a little more difficult.

Going back to our example of a web development company earlier, a good title tag would be:

<title>”Company name provides professional affordable web development services in Sydney Australia.”</title>

Usually, the closer to the front of your title tag the keywords are placed, the better.

Step 3. H1 Tags and Keyword Density

<h1> tags seem to have been depreciated by stylesheets these days, and are not used as often as they used to be.

The Google ranking algorithm dictates that if you’re using a <h1> tag, then the text in between this tag must be more important than the content on the rest of the page. Here’s a quick example:

<h1>Google sees this text as more important</h1>
<p>… than this text</p>

By default, H1 tags aren’t the prettiest in terms of formatting, so using a CSS style to override the default look is usually a good idea:

H1 { color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px }

Sprinkling keywords throughout your page content can also improve your sites keyword density. Keyword density simply means the ratio of optimized keywords to the rest of the content on your page. It is usually expressed as a percentage, and should be between 7% and 10% for each page on your site.

Don’t overdo the keyword density, however, but don’t overlook it either. A good example would be:

Before:

• Company name provides web design and site management services to our clients.

After:

• Company name provides web development services to the Sydney region in Australia

Notice how we use the keywords more efficiently the second time around?

Step 4. Links, Links and More Links

And this leads us to the toughest part of the Google SEO process — back-links. Back links are websites that link directly to your website. The general principal is the more back links you have, the higher your pages will be ranked, as your website must be good if so many other sites are linking back to it.

If you run a web development company, then adding a simple link to the bottom of each of your client’s websites, such as:

<a href=http://www.yoursite.com>Web development by Company Name</a>

… (With your clients permission of course) can help boost your back links, which will help boost your ranking position in searches.

Submitting your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo! and other directories is also an important step to increase the number of sites linking back to yours. Do remember however, that setting up back links takes time. I would recommend emailing 5-10 websites each and every day to request back-links or partnership links (keeping in mind that the sites contacted should be relevant but not competitive) e.g. – If you sell chocolate, partnering with a company that sells Roses may just be a good idea. Within a couple of weeks, you should have a good 100 or so sites happily linking back to yours!

Google can be one tough search engine to crack. Hopefully, however, in this article we’ve provided you with enough basic tips to get started optimizing both yours and your clients website.

Improve Web Site Rankings With On Page Optimization Techniques

Posted by Michael Fleischner on Apr 15th, 2009 | one comment

On-page optimization is where you should begin and SEO campaign. What you do on your web site and various web pages has a significant impact on search engine results. Even though off-page optimization is a critical component for higher rankings, on-page techniques are essential for building a strong SEO foundation.

Here are a few SEO tips you can use starting immediately to make your site more search engine friendly and begin enhancing overall rankings on all types of search engines.

Optimize Your Website Name. If you have not yet picked a URL for your website then consider purchasing one that includes your keyword but is broad enough to represent your business. Additionally, try to find a website name that is memorable. This helps with word of mouth and repeat visitors. Include your main broad keyword into your URL.

Optimize Your Page Title and Header Tags Including H1 and H2. Develop a title that is relevant to your website content and which has no more that sixty characters. The reason you want to keep your title to a fixed width is because longer titles wont display fully on search engine results listings. The title is important because it gives you an opportunity to display your keywords and entice browsers to click on your link.

The first headline that appears on your page should include your keywords and be in the form of an H1 tag. The sub text should be presented as an H2 or H3 header. This reinforces the importance of your keywords and indicates prominence oriented around the specific content included on your web page.

Optimize All Your Meta Tags. SEO experts continue to debate the value of meta tags. I can tell you that although meta tags including the title, description, and keywords is less important that it was many years ago, it still plays an important role in optimization.

Search engines use meta tags as a reference for search engine crawlers that view your website content. Your meta tags need to be correlated to your content and also include your keyword phrases. Doing so creates consistency, something that search engine spiders weigh heavily when determining website rankings. Make sure you fully develop your description and keywords.

Optimize your keyword density for Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Creating a keyword rich content page is essential but do not get carried away. Your keyword density should be between three and five percent in order to appeal to all major search engines. Some people believe that you could go as high as six percent for Yahoo! optimization but Google seems to like pages that have a smaller keyword density. In addition to keyword density, focus on H1 and H2 tags and place keywords at the beginning, middle, and end of your web page. This variety is helpful when signaling search engines as to the keywords that are important to your web page.

Keyword Variation. The last piece to focus on is keyword variety. Instead of stuffing your page with the same keyword phrases again and again, use some variety. A great way to do this is to add a word or two before your keyword phrase and after it. Creating variety is important because it shows each search engine that your site has a focus but that you are not intentionally trying to improve your ranking.

The most important part of any search engine optimization campaign is to make your site appear natural, present valuable content, and follow on-page optimization best practices. If you use the above suggestions as a guide, you will be well on your way to a fully optimized website.

Tip For Creating High Quality Backlinks And Increasing Site Traffic

Posted by Winson Yeung on Feb 2nd, 2009 | no comments

As you may have noticed, getting traffic to your site is essential to its life. In order to get high page rank on Google, it is necessary to have a number of backlinks from quality sites. There are three things to always remember for creation of high quality backlinks for search engine optimization of your site:

High quality backlinks are essential for improving the rankings of your site within search engines. There is also no need to have hundreds or thousands of backlinks to your site. The sites that you link to should always be of high quality and targeted information. This information is well known and most recommended by all within the field of SEO.

Let me give you a bit of an idea of backlink are. Think of it like this: an externally located site, connect to your site from a link. Quite simply, your vote of popularity increases along with the number of quality backlinks from other sites to yours. That means you have higher placement with search engines. Despite what you may have heard, you only need a handful of high quality back links from other sites.

There is no need to buy backlinks and in the case you do decide to buy them, take caution. You should always know where the links are coming from. Also make sure to know how they link to your site. In any case, it is always better to do it yourself. There is so much information out there, to help with creating high quality backlinks. Here are some recommendations:

Various Methods of Advertising: advertising helps to increase traffic and to build a foundation of high quality backlinks. Telling others about your site, helps, but is not as effective as other ways. Classified advertising is free with most. The more you post on different one’s, the more exposure you gain.

Forums are another great way to get the exposure that you seek. Just make sure to post on forums that relate to your site. These links in forums are permanent unlike advertising in the classifieds. This kind of permanent link really help to promote your site and gain a higher page rank in accordance to the ranking of the site you are posting on.

Advertise and participate in social networks, which will help in gaining a following and higher page rank as a result. Another great way is to comment on others blogs that are within the topic of your site. Participate in the discussions to help in your creation of another backlink to your site.

Submitting Articles: When you submit articles they are to sites that are trusted by search engines. Therefore, they have a higher placement rank with search engines and give you another high quality backlink to your site. Make sure however, that the articles that you submit are high quality and follow there guidelines so that they are accepted.

With time your site will start to flourish. Don’t forget to invest time, so that you will have high quality backlinks from other sites. Believe me, you will then start to have more traffic and revenue as a result.